First Baptist Church of Calvert
Calvert, Robertson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
As early as 1835, Baptists were worshipping in this area. In 1868, when Calvert was founded, Houston & Texas Central Railroad donated lots for a church. Until a brick edifice was built in 1873 on that land (at Hanna and Pine), services were held in a private residence. This church was host (1875) to Baptist State Convention; (1875, 1878) the State Sunday School Convention; (1912) Hood's Texas Brigade Reunion. Sent (1907) Alyne Guynes Muirhead and (1915) Sammie Guynes Johnson as missionaries to Brazil. Since 1947, sponsors Mexican mission. Elmo Baptist Church merged with Calvert, 1969.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Baptists were worshipping in the Calvert area as early as 1835, and when the town was founded in 1868 the Houston & Texas Central Railroad donated lots for a church, with a brick sanctuary rising in 1873. The congregation hosted state conventions and a Hood's Texas Brigade reunion, and sent members abroad as missionaries to Brazil in the early twentieth century. Its history is woven into the growth of a railroad town in the cotton country of the Brazos Valley.
Why it matters
The church's story shows how railroads and religious institutions grew up together to shape new Texas towns in the Reconstruction era.
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Related people
- · Alyne Guynes Muirhead
- · Sammie Guynes Johnson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Former Calvert Courthouse
Calvert, TX
Calvert became the seat of Robertson County in 1870 and began this imposing courthouse in 1875 — but a deadly 1873 yellow fever epidemic had already stripped the town of many leaders, and in 1879 the county seat moved to Franklin before the building was even finished. Merchant Robert A. Brown bought the unfinished structure in 1885 and, with his wife Lucy, converted it into a family residence. It passed through the Hammond family for decades before becoming a museum in 1966.
Church of the Epiphany
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Organized in 1870 by Bishop Gregg, the Church of the Epiphany is the oldest church building in Calvert and has served its parish continuously since. Its fine wood scrollwork, lancet windows, and Victorian lines reflect the ambitions of a Brazos Valley cotton and railroad town in the flush years after the Civil War. That it still stands and serves testifies to the durability of the community that raised it.
St. Paul United Methodist Church
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This Calvert congregation organized in 1872 as St. Paul Methodist Episcopal Church, North, and moved quickly to rebuild after its first sanctuary burned. Reusing salvaged material with new lumber, church member and noted carpenter Charlie Terrill completed the present building in 1900, a fine example of Gothic Revival design with a central tower, pointed-arch windows, and fish-scale gable shingles. The church hosted the West Texas Annual Methodist Conference in 1913 and long served as a center of community life.
Sterling Cemetery
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